How to use Heal Selection and heal transparency tools in Gimp (formerly Resynthesizer)

Before image: With heal selection, we can remove elements such as the tree branches.

After image: I used the heal selection tool to remove some elements of this photo. The heal transparency tool allowed me to elongate the image.

The heal transparency and heal selection tool allows you to easily remove elements from your image or fill in missing areas from your image. They are Gimp tool found in Filters>Enhance. These tools were formerly done using the plugin "Resynthesizer" (Resynthesizer now no longer works the way it should in some versions of Gimp).

These tools are similar to Photoshop's "Content aware."

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Draw a sunset with tree silhouette landscape scene using Inkscape and the Gimp

My very first tutorial on this website was drawing a tree in the sunset (similar to the image you see above). That tutorial shows signs of me not really being experienced in tutorial making... it is not very detailed. So I decided to redo the tutorial. This tutorial will be doing the same thing, but with much more detail and instruction. Ideally, someone with no prior Inkscape or Gimp experience (and a lot of patience) could complete this tutorial. (Note: This tutorial was done using Inkscape version .48)

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How to remove the background from an image using the Gimp

Perhaps the thing I most often use the Gimp for is to remove a background. It is quite simple and fast once you are familiar with how to do it. This tutorial will focus on just the basics. It will show how to remove a single color background (this is the easiest way to remove a background).

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Cheesy Valentines - The History

Another Valentines day (or "single awareness day" as many people like to call it. It is this time of year that I make cheesy Valentines and hand them out to whoever will accept them. Each year (I would like to think) I get better and better at making Valentines, so I thought I would like to document my progress and give a little history of my Valentine making.

If you would like to attempt to make your own Valentine similar to mine, I have created a tutorial. It is a bit outdated, but the concepts are still basically the same:

Making Valentines day by swapping your face on the face of a celebrity

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The Best Way to Download Free Textures for your Designs

Anyone getting into graphic design will eventually start using different textures. I want to feature a few of my favorite places to find some free textures.

Textureking.com

Texture King has a large database of textures. The website is easy to navigate and downloading is super simple.

Imageabstraction.com

Image Abstraction also has a great database of textures and is well organized. I found downloading to be a bit easier on Texture King, but it is still easy to download at Image Abstraction.

Texturespot.com/

Texture Spot's database is not as large, but still worth taking a look.

Google.com

This is my favorite place to find textures from my favorite web company. Google image searches always helps you get what you are looking for.

Go a Google search for the texture you want, click the Images link above the search results and when the results come up, press the "Large" link for image size to make sure you are getting the best possible textures.

Disclaimer:
Whenever you download textures, make sure you read the terms and conditions from whatever website you are downloading them from.

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